No. 167, Jun. 2009

Kodomo Manga Shimbun – a children’s newspaper
published in the early postwar years

Keiyu HORIKOSHI
Newspapers Division
Reference and Special Collections Department

This is a translation of the article of the same title
in NDL Monthly Bulletin No. 576 (March 2009).

The Kodomo Manga shimbun is a comic newspaper for children published from 1946 to 1953. The enthusiasm is shown in the introductory issue (vol. 1, issue 1, March 5, 1946), “authors of the Kodomo Manga Shimbun are working hard to make children happy and cheerful.” The newspaper was one of various comic magazines and comic newspapers launched right after World War II. However, unlike other comic newspapers, it was distributed through a home delivery system across the country and written by major cartoonists of the time (figure 2). Maybe because of that, it was published for a longer time than other comic newspapers.

*Click on the figure for a larger image

The publisher was the Kodomo Manga Shimbun Company in Tokyo. It was published weekly and consisted of 4-8 pages in tabloid format. From the twelfth issue (August 12, 1946), 2-4 pages in each issue were printed in color. The size and number of pages vary by issue.

Most of the authors were members of the Manga Shudan (cartoonists group) including Kaoru AKIYOSHI, Kazuo IZAKI, Hidezo KONDO, Eijiro SHIOTA, Kon SHIMIZU, Yukio SUGIURA, Yoshiro MINAMI, Ryuichi YOKOYAMA (figs. 1 and 3). Though cartoonists in the Manga Shudan drew caricatures and topical cartoons for adults for general newspapers and magazines, they created charming and amusing works in the Kodomo Manga Shimbun. As the Manga Shudan was engaged in a campaign against harmful publications (*) from that time, the works show the authors’ spirit of “these are what we call excellent comics.” Other than comics, this newspaper carried interesting news and stories both inside and outside Japan, gravure pictures, and letters from readers. It also featured political and social events such as the enactment of the Constitution of Japan, the holding of a general election, the Tokyo war crimes trial, the San Francisco peace treaty (Treaty of peace with Japan) and the outbreak of the Korean War.

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We can see some articles written about the National Diet Library (NDL) which was established in 1948. In issue No. 124 (October 24, 1948), an article titled “Books on social studies are most frequently read: recent news on the National Diet Library” reports, “from forty to fifty children visit to read books every day. The most popular books are on social studies, followed by comics and adventure novels” with a photo of the children’s reading room in a temporary library building in the Akasaka Detached Palace (now Geihinkan, the State Guest House). In an article on the first pages of issue No. 143 (March 6, 1949) titled “Children of new Japan (3) study together in the National Diet Library,” Tatsumi NISHIKAWA wrote, “the children’s reading room is filled with good boys and girls every day who like studying. In the large and beautiful garden, children are cheerfully playing and rest their brains tired from studying” with an illustration of children. It also carried interviews and comments by the first Librarian of the NDL, Tokujiro KANAMORI several times (figure 3).

The NDL holds introductory issues from vol. 1, issue 1 to vol. 1, issue 6 (April 25, 1946); from No. 1 (May 12, 1946) to No. 175 (October 16, 1949); and from No. 201 (April 16, 1950) to the last issue, No. 358 (April 26, 1953). Other than the NDL, the Kawafune Bunko in Matsumoto city in Nagano holds from No. 4 (June 9, 1946) to No. 350 (February 22, 1953). Both have many missing issues.

* Campaign against harmful publications (Akusho tsuiho undo): a grass-roots movement in the 1950s and 1960s against buying, selling or creating books and magazines harmful to juveniles. Some children’s magazines were forced to cease publication, and regulations restricting the sales were established by local governments.

• Introductory issues from Vol. 1, issue 1 (March 5, 1946) to vol. 1, issue 6 (April 25, 1946): published every ten days by Chigusa Shobo
  No. 1 (May 12, 1946) to No. 175 (October 16, 1949): published weekly by the Kodomo Manga Shimbun Company
  [NDL Call Number: VH3-Ko22/Ko23] (microfilmed from the Gordon W. Prange Collection [related article]) Available in the Modern Japanese Political History Materials Room

• No. 201 (April 16, 1950) to the last issue, No. 358 (April 26, 1953): published weekly by the Kodomo Manga Shimbun Company
  [NDL Call Number: YB-863] Available in the Newspaper Reading Room
  LINE.tmp addlnavi.sh addlnavi.sh.20110830.log addmainbody.sh convert.sh6 convert.sh6.20110829.log convert.sh6.20110906.log converted files_list.csv forconvert6 header1.txt header1_en.txt header2.txt header2_en.txt hooter.txt hooter_en.txt index.html.tmp navihtml_1 navihtml_10 navihtml_11 navihtml_12 navihtml_13 navihtml_14 navihtml_15 navihtml_16 navihtml_17 navihtml_18 navihtml_19 navihtml_2 navihtml_20 navihtml_21 navihtml_22 navihtml_23 navihtml_3 navihtml_30 navihtml_31 navihtml_32 navihtml_33 navihtml_34 navihtml_35 navihtml_36 navihtml_37 navihtml_38 navihtml_39 navihtml_4 navihtml_40 navihtml_41 navihtml_42 navihtml_43 navihtml_44 navihtml_45 navihtml_46 navihtml_47 navihtml_5 navihtml_65 navihtml_66 navihtml_67 navihtml_7 navihtml_9 old out.html output.csv output.csv.tmp summarysort.tmp title.tmp w3ccheck.sh w3ccheck.sh.20110830.log Microfilms are provided for reading and copying as the original materials are badly deteriorated.

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